


Hokkaido

by lynndyre, threewalls



Series: Shadowverse [10]
Category: Yami No Matsuei
Genre: Alternate Character Interpretation, Alternate Universe, Community: 30_lemons, Drunk Sex, Drunkenness, Hangover, Hot Springs, Jealousy, M/M, Massage, Partnership, Shadow!verse, Technology, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Vacation, Voyeurism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-05-09
Updated: 2005-05-09
Packaged: 2017-10-20 23:25:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/218243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lynndyre/pseuds/lynndyre, https://archiveofourown.org/users/threewalls/pseuds/threewalls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shadows, sake and hot springs...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hokkaido

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for all the encouragement we've received for this AU, and special thanks to kata_elf for Konoe's song choice.

"You're not? But-- You know you deserve a vacation-- no, just like everyone else. You do more work than most of this office-- Konoe's not going to give Hokkaido a miss. What are you going to do for a week?"

The other half of Watari's conversation was occurring in a PDA in his upper right lab coat pocket. It was shut, of course, though it had been tinkered with to remain constantly online regardless.

Watari could follow the conversation through a quirk of fate that place the better part of a motherboard inside his skull soon after his death. He understood the comments as a perfectly comprehensible bit-string, but still tend to think of them as words.

> There is sufficient back log that I will require more than one week to process it. Not to mention the financial manipulations required to balance the budget following Konoe's projected expenditure.

"Come on, Tatsumi! I know you're not that much of a stick in the mud. Area 6 drew with Area 9 this year. You can't leave me at the mercy of those girls."

> I understand that they have expressed more interest in Kurosaki of late.

"I'm getting old, that's what you're telling me? Girls aren't interested anymore?" Watari said, chuckling. "Some partner you are, Tatsumi."

They were not officially partners, since Tatsumi's current condition of existence did not lend itself to official employment. Unofficially was another story, since Watari would tell anyone who asked that Tatsumi was his partner. Since most of the office had only ever heard of this 'Tatsumi' from Watari and had never interacted with him directly, no one contradicted him.

> If it would not impose too great a diversion upon you, could you walk past Konoe Kachou's office before returning to the laboratory?

Watari paused in his stride, coming to a complete halt and then pivoting on one heel. He had been moving towards the lab; Tatsumi normally didn't mind keeping him company there-- there were a lot more shadows in his lab than the corridor they were currently in.

"You're that desperate to get back to work are you? It sounds to me like you're trying to finish things up. I know these trips are usually disappointments but we've never had anywhere as good as Hokkaido. Good food, sake, hot springs... Konoe's really splurging this time."

> One moment.

Watari kept his mouth shut and kept walking. You needed acknowledged key phrases when you did all your talking without body language. This one meant that Tatsumi was still considering his response, but expected to reply shortly.

> Watari-san, I agree that all the activities you have described are those you might find highly enjoyable, but I find it necessary at this point to state that such activities appeal to the body not the mind.

"Oh. Damn." Watari whistled through his teeth. He reached up reflexively and ran his fingers through his hair. "You know I don't mean to rub your nose in it."

> Of course. No offence taken.

Watari's pocket was much darker than the corridor's lighting should have made it-- as was the space underneath Watari's abundant loose hair. It was only sensible for Tatsumi to travel in the shadows cast by the interaction of light with Watari's person, even if it was necessary to use his talents to artificially deepen them.

"There's got to be something you could do-- have you tried snow shadows yet, or you could experiment with the light on the water... you could talk to me, you know?" Watari shrugged, dropping his hand. "Apart from Konoe, the average mental age is going to be about seventeen. I was hoping for some adult conversation."

> Electronic correspondence would be more efficient. I will be online constantly in Konoe's absence.

The speed with which Tatsumi typed might have constituted eagerness, but ten years of partnership told Watari that he was more likely looking at stubbornness.

"I'm not going to make you come if you don't want to, Tatsumi."

> Thank you.  
> I would be delighted to attend to any minor observations or adjustments to on-going experiments.

"I didn't plan to leave anything running while I'm away. Don't want to blow it up, especially when I wouldn't even be there to watch. Plus, all my test subjects are coming to Hokkaido, too."

> Are there no experiments that you do not plan to test on your colleagues?

"No." Watari shook his head, smirking. "And I'm not giving you another excuse to stay here. Personally, I give you a day or two of constant paperwork before you start needing a distraction. You can come find me then, all right?"

> Thank you for the kind offer, Watari-san. I shall see.  
> You have arrived at Kachou's office.

Watari snorted. "That's the best offer I'm going to get out of you, isn't it? Well, I'll be around, mostly in the lab finishing up *absolutely everything* if you need me."

Tatsumi allowed his shadows to press forward, briefly giving the impression of cupping the back of Watari's head, before receding outwards and through the dark cracks around Konoe's office door.

Watari looked at the closed door for a moment, before shrugging and walking off towards the laboratory.

"See you around, partner."

\---

About five hours into official 'vacation' time, Watari was already bored.

He stood up to stretch his legs, pacing a little on the spot before sinking back to his knees on the steps. His notebook held a few stray doodles, but the morning hadn't provided much inspiration to draw. 003-chan slept like a warm paperweight in his left jacket pocket; his PDA felt like a heavier weight in the right pocket, but Watari didn't use it. He didn't want to give his partner the satisfaction of being right.

Konoe had hired a bus to drive them all to Hokkaido. While Shinigami could teleport, travelling with a week's luggage was easiest accomplished by normal means. Konoe was already there when Watari showed up half-an-hour late, as was Hisoka. Tsuzuki arrived two hours late, after Hisoka rang his boarding house to wake him up. They were still waiting on Torii Saya and Fukiya Yuma. Saya and Yuma were known for travelling toting their weight in clothes, so the bus couldn't be packed until they arrived.

The rest of the division had ended up spending their morning outside, too, chatting and sitting on the grass beside one of the Diet building's back entrances. Wakaba-chan had kindly decided to distribute her own lunch, though there wasn't really enough for everyone. Predictably, this led to words between Tsuzuki and Terazuma, though there wasn't much they could destroy before their partners intervened. All in all, the first day of the vacation was turning into just another day at the office, only outside.

Tatsumi had been there briefly to begin with, offering the usual small-talk about their last case, about the budget-- Watari had given similarly shallow answers. Even if Watari was still convinced he was right, the weather was too good to spoil bringing up a mostly settled argument.

Speaking of the weather, it was wonderful. Sakura petals seemed to get everywhere, but they were soft and the breeze that carried them was gentle. Watari had found himself asking himself why he never took his work outside, until he remembered why.

Tatsumi had left a little before ten, as the sunlight became more intense, to file the paperwork submitted immediately prior to the vacation period. Watari had re-wrapped his scarf around his neck, daring anyone to ask why he wore so many layers in Meifu's eternal Spring.

No one could fault him for being prepared. In Chijou, it was the middle of winter.

\---

At approximately four-thirty, as the last of the afternoon gave way to dusk, Tatsumi found he had unconsciously migrated most of his consciousness to his partner's laboratory.

The room was tiny without its virtual additions. Watari had pulled all the blinds shut and disconnected the gas and electricity mains as an additional safety precaution. Tatsumi existed in the shadows cast by the emergency lighting.

How awkward. How dangerous.

Tatsumi was a creature of shadow. His physical form, if he could be said to possess one, was darkness. Existing in space that was too naturally lit was tasking, requiring constant energy expenditure to maintain his shape and effectiveness. However, Tatsumi found lack of light to be equally, if not more, worrisome. The greater density of darkness, the more easily Tatsumi's mind diffused-- if the area was large enough, then Tatsumi risked forgetting himself entirely. Familiar surroundings helped to prevent this end. Tatsumi could then with concentration restrain himself to specific known shadows.

It seemed that without Watari's presence, the laboratory was alien.

Tatsumi migrated back to Konoe's office, settling around the filing cabinets and the backs of the desks he most often used to sort papers.

His computer screen had been nearly permanently set to his open e-mail inbox. The four new messages included two from the Peace Protection Bureau, one from Accountancy and a standard progress report from Chizuru Akamine in Area 1.

Tatsumi hoped Watari was having fun.

\---

Vacations were always such fun.

Considering how late they left Tokyo, it was a miracle (or judicious use of shrine teleportation way-points) that they arrived in Hokkaido just in time for their hotel's evening meal-- all expenses paid and with at least as many types of alcohol as food. Watari remembered that one of the first courses had been crab, because he couldn't remember the last time that he'd had crab. Most of them were just a really appealing blur in his mind. There was karaoke scheduled after the meal-- Watari sang along to a J-Pop song that had been written after he died. However, once Konoe got behind the mike he wouldn't give it up. After that, everyone started to drift back to their rooms, to unpack or change.

Watari's head felt pleasantly buzzed, his skin just a little too warm. He'd half-changed out of the complimentary yukata provided by the hotel. Something about the yukata bothered him; there was something just not right about the lack of pockets, but what would he really need out there? He usually took his PDA everywhere with him, or at least a notebook, in case inspiration struck at some odd moment, but out there, they'd just get wet and blurred or broken. He didn't plan to have inspiration, anyway, just fun!

Watari had also half unbound his hair, though he forgot why. He had now spent at least ten minutes just running a comb through his hair, waiting for the thought to come back to him. His hair felt too light for some reason. The way the comb's teeth felt through the back of his yukata was interesting once he'd figured out how much pressure to use to stop the tickle.

He felt-- fuzzy. That was the word for it. It felt really good. He decided to be fuzzy more often in the future.

There was a knock on Watari's door-frame, immediately followed by the sound of it sliding open. Tsuzuki called out his name, just a little slurred.

Watari quickly wrapped his yukata closed and knotted the belt. Tsuzuki stood, leaning on the doorway, wearing a yukata of his own. It was kind of funny, because they matched, apart from their hair.

No partners.

"Hisoka's having a bath."

"In the hot springs?"

"No, I..." Tsuzuki looked down to think. "I don't think so."

Watari had seen Tsuzuki follow Hisoka from the karaoke. He expected Tsuzuki to return quickly because Hisoka seemed to be in a bad mood. Hisoka objected to drinking and to karaoke and now apparently he was taking a bath inside when there were hot springs to be had. Watari normally thought the more the merrier, but in this case it seemed to be just as well. He wanted to have fun.

"They have whiskey here," Tsuzuki said, continuing.

Tsusuki held out a bottle, shaking it to prove it existed and was still reasonably filled with amber liquid. Watari estimated its current capacity to be 584 of a possible 700ml. He clearly hadn't had enough alcohol to dull all the circuits yet.

"You have whiskey," Watari heard himself say.

Tsuzuki nodded, and then added, leaning forward, "*We* can have whiskey-- if you want. There's actually a whole bunch of hot springs attached to the hotel--"

"Cool!" Watari moved forward to the door, lightly slapping Tsuzuki's arm. "Let's go!"

Tsuzuki swayed slightly as he straightened. They linked arms. Tsuzuki smelt like sake and whiskey to Watari, but mostly, he smelt good.

"Whiskey!" they chroused moving out the door.

Watari was going to have fun.

\---

His scars were only white lines here-- relatively harmless, but the heat from the water made his skin pink in stark relief. When he closed his eyes, he saw them in negative, or he saw worse.

He didn't want to think about _that_.

Hisoka could remember thinking that communal bathing was normal, though the ease felt like an emotion borrowed from someone else. He couldn't recall the image, but he must have done so at his father's house.

He didn't want to think about his father.

Hisoka couldn't believe how drunk everyone else had gotten-- and how quickly. They all felt like they were enjoying it, for what that was worth. Didn't they know how terrible they'd feel the next day?

Tsuzuki was an affectionate drunk and that was somehow both a terror and a comfort. Hisoka hadn't panicked, importantly, when Tsuzuki had asked and Hisoka said he would be bathing by himself.

He didn't want to think about Tsuzuki, or Tsubaki, or being held in the helicopter, too distressed to shield properly-- the way Tsuzuki had felt when he'd talked to their pilot, Watari, and the way that longing seemed to be returned, though he'd also known Watari was completely fixated on flying.

Watari's partner was yet another of so many things that just made Tsuzuki shut down. Tsuzuki was so frustrating, but he was also so... so...

Hisoka didn't want to sleep until he felt clean, but the heat made him so tired.

\---

The first input Tatsumi received upon arrival was that Watari was outside-- the darkness was too dense. It took several further moments for Tatsumi to surmise that he had caught his partner bathing. Shadows cannot so easily move underwater at night, when almost all light reflects from the surface.

Tatsumi had intended to surprise his partner, but Watari seemed in no want of company.

"Wah! Let go!"

"You let go! Tsuzuki, you started this!"

"Did not!"

"Did so!"

It was hardly Tatsumi's habit to arrive unannounced, but he had thought this particular situation was different. Watari had indicated-- ah, but Watari would not have expected Tatsumi to have folded on his proposed course of action so quickly.

Tatsumi treated Watari's privacy very seriously. He had never once taken advantage of the stealth his shadow-form afforded him. He had always announced his presence by the manifestation of pressure somewhere Watari would feel, if not via electronic message. Neither seemed currently appropriate.

"Watari is so mean!"

"Oh, I don't know. I'm having fun, and what I'm holding here says you are, too!"

Tatsumi did not need to see under the water to know that this intimacy was not meant for his viewing. He drifted into the shadows cast behind the rocks around the pool until he hit the bucket containing Watari and Tsuzuki's belongings. However, Tatsumi still found nothing he could use to leave a message. The darkness pressed cool and invitingly blank against his mind, and so Tatsumi was loath to travel further in such unfamiliar territory. He retreated unwillingly back to the shadows of his partner's hair.

"Sit on my lap. No, facing me. We'll be able to reach better."

"Oh-- ok, Watari."

Tatsumi would have preferred to return to Meifu, but however awkward it was to remain, not staying meant risking his partner's anger.

Tatsumi knew his partner well. For all his many virtues, Watari could be vindictive. He quickly retaliated for minor sleights, usually by barbed comment. For more strongly felt offences, Watari completely and utterly ignored the source of his irritation until the feeling passed. Tatsumi had only ever watched Watari apply this punishment, never received it, but it had still disturbed him. He knew from those examples that withholding information was the most major offence in Watari's eyes.

If Tatsumi could have turned away or closed his eyes or any of the many simple ways a man could offer another privacy, he would have, but such options were no longer available to him. His only hope lay in reasoning with Watari, if he could remain undiscovered until such a time that he could access technology with which to write.

"Better now I'm holding both of them, right, Tsuzuki?"

Tatsumi supposed, hesitantly, that Watari and Tsuzuki made an attractive couple. They were both individually beautiful. Light and dark, long hair and short. Tsuzuki looked so much the same as the last time Tatsumi had seen him that he thought it might have hurt-- but it didn't. Jealousy was not something shadows could feel. It did seem a great and strange pity that Tatsumi could not know what colour Watari's hair was beyond 'light'. Perhaps that was because Tatsumi's memory could only supply Tsuzuki's colour to his monochrome vision.

Their movements were not elegant; Watari and Tsuzuki were clearly almost completely drunk. However, their enthusiasm seemed charming. Tatsumi did not begrudge them the enjoyment of the strength and beauty of their bodies, though he was perhaps slightly envious that he would never again enjoy the same.

"That was nice. We should get out of the water before we pass out."

"But-- ok."

Tatsumi would be able to explain as soon as Watari returned to his hotel room. He clung to Watari's hair as Watari stood to dry off, with his back away from buildings.

"I don't want stop, though. Want to keep going in your room?"

No, Tatsumi thought, but he could not speak as Tsuzuki could.

"Sure, Watari!"

\---

As the music of yet another song wound down, Konoe waited for applause. It did not come and when he looked at the queue behind him he noticed that there was no queue.

He could have another turn.

The host and hostess stood near the door to the karaoke room. Perhaps they had a better view of the light show behind Konoe from there. He'd certainly give them a show worth watching.

There weren't many songs left that he hadn't sung so it took some time to find his next number. When that was complete, he adjusted his tie so that the point no longer fell over his eyes and waited for words to appear on screen. He tapped his foot in time with the musical introduction.

" _Tsing, Tsing, Tsingis Khan, kaikkien naapurivaltojen alistaja..."_

\---

Kurosaki was standing outside the door when Watari opened it. From the looks on their faces, neither Kurosaki nor Watari expected to see the other. Kurosaki blushed heavily, but no doubt unconsciously. Watari simply looked pale and sickly. Tatsumi judged that this, too, would not be an interaction he should be privy to, but he had no alternative but to remain.

"Watari-san!"

"Morning, Bon." Watari blinked at the mid-morning light visible in the corridor and swept his hands down over his yukata in what seemed a practiced motion. He stared down at himself and shrugged, and then raised a hand over his eyes to look toward Kurosaki. "He's still sleeping."

"Who?"

Unlike Watari, Kurosaki seemed to have rested well and risen earlier in the morning. He held a thick paperback book. Tatsumi could see no identifying information from his vantage point, but it seemed to speak well of him that he came prepared to wait a considerable time for his partner.

"You're not waiting for Tsuzuki?"

Kurosaki had begun to glare and stood with his arms crossed, though imperfectly for the book he carried. It took away from his posture considerably. Tatsumi caught the title, then, but it was in some Western language, and thus meant very little to him.

"I was just walking past."

"Sorry. You would have been waiting by the kitchens, if you had been waiting."

With that, Watari left the doorway for the right-hand branch of the corridor. Tatsumi followed, of course, flowing from the darkness of Tsuzuki's guestroom to the shadows that formed within the tangled mass of Watari's hair. He strove to anchor himself as lightly as possible.

"Watari-san!" Kurosaki called out, loudly. "Where are you going?"

Watari turned, his palms pressing into the side of his head. "Not so loud, Bon. You've never been hung-over, have you?"

Kurosaki shook his head.

Watari's shoulders shifted underneath Tatsumi in a way he knew to be a shrug or a stretch. "It's a vacation, Bon."

"If Tsuzuki wakes up before you come back, I could tell him--"

Watari let loose a bark of laughter, catching the sound quickly behind a hand. He waved away Kurosaki's outrage with his other hand and explained, "I forget sometimes how young you are."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. Sorry to have kept you from Joyce. See you around, Bon."

\---

Watari passed no one in the corridors. It was a little after eleven. Sensible people were probably still sleeping-- or perhaps Konoe had really splurged and they were the only ones here. Watari hadn't paid much attention when they'd arrived the night before.

Watari's head felt about as good as could be expected between a shower, coffee, his prescription sunglasses and two magic hangover-cure pills that didn't seem to have kicked in yet. He'd dressed fully when he returned to his hotel room rather than change into the freshly laundered yukata he found waiting. Now sober, Watari had been able to remember why he didn't like traditional dress-- too movement-restricting and far too few pockets.

003-chan had still been sleeping when he'd left his room, which hopefully that meant she hadn't seen last night's folly.

Watari couldn't believe how drunk he must have been. He'd gone drinking with Tsuzuki before. He knew how Tsuzuki could get. He knew that he, Watari, hadn't got laid in twenty years and Tsuzuki for maybe fifty, but from the hints he'd picked up over time, Watari had guessed that anything with Tsuzuki would be closer to complicated than casual. So, Watari had been careful to never trespass beyond what was plainly friendship.

Last night was a mistake.

Tsuzuki was two types of drunk: sometimes cheerfully affectionate, sometimes cheerfully depressed. He liked talking about his ex-partners and anyone else who had ever abandoned him, and how right they all were. Watari had never seen Tsuzuki cut in front of him, but he'd caught glimpses of the scars.

Watari also knew how Tsuzuki dealt with rejection.

How stupid could he--

No-- he had to work with what he had. What happened last night couldn't be changed, therefore it didn't matter. The important question was what to do now. If Watari had a clear plan, Tsuzuki would agree; last night had shown him that as well.

It was cold outside, but that was normal. Watari followed the porch around the hotel away from entrance to the springs themselves. There was nothing of note, not even external doors. Eventually, the porch met the wooden wall encircling the hotel. It just high enough that he couldn't see over it.

Watari settled himself in the darkened corner where the hotel met the fence and fished through his pockets. There was a hairbrush with a hair elastic wound around the handle; Watari put the elastic on his wrist. He moved most of his hair to fall over one shoulder and started picking at the ends with the brush.

He re-opened the wireless connection in his mind, routing himself through his PDA to the internet and then to his personal server. His mailbox had a few new messages, but nothing that was worth replying to, not on vacation.

> Tatsumi? You online?  
Watari sent.

The reply was instantaneous.

> Yes.

Watari had once trialled some text-to-voice technology prototypes for as partner, but Tatsumi had politely declined every one, preferring to type his own words. Therefore, Tatsumi's 'voice' had no sound for Watari to react to. As his words were automatically relayed to the computer interface inside Watari's brain, certain neurotransmitters fired in recognition regardless.

Watari thought the painkiller in his hangover cure had finally kicked in.

> One moment.

Watari peered curiously at one of the worse tangles as if that would make it somehow easier to smooth. It didn't. He had dried his hair completely with a hairdryer inside and that should have made it easier, but Watari had forgotten to put his hair up before the hot springs and everything else the night before. It was going to take a while.

He felt Tatsumi's shadows spreading thick and cool between his back and the fence, and underneath his hair from his neck down. Watari let out a sigh of relief as his headache receded further.

> How is your vacation progressing?"

Watari snorted. "Terrible, thanks for asking. You wouldn't believe what an idiot I was--"

> Last night, I saw  
> I apologise.  
> I should not have watched, but I was

Tatsumi had-- no, he couldn't have.

> It was too dark. I could not leave.  
> I apologise.

Tatsumi must have-- he wouldn't be panicking otherwise.

> I am sorry.  
> I do not have eyes to close.

Tatsumi was panicking.

Watari dropped the brush and grabbed his PDA out of his pocket, opening it to the sun. The shadows that had been inside quickly slid down the sleeve of his jacket and up out of his collar. The words stopped.

"It's okay," Watari said. "Relax, Tatsumi. It's okay if you're okay."

Watari knew Tatsumi could have returned to the office, but his partner might have forgotten that if he was panicking anything like the way he was panicking now.

"I'm putting the PDA away now. Don't apologise again, okay, Tatsumi? Just tell me that you're all right."

> I am fine, Watari-san.

Watari let out a sigh of relief. "Good. I can handle being stupid better than I can handle risking my partner's life."

There is a long pause, a worrying pause, but Watari could still feel Tatsumi on his neck and his back. He didn't want to talk if Tatsumi was just thinking, but Tatsumi had not indicated whether he was. Watari picked up his brush and set back into his hair.

"I'm sorry, too..."

> I am genuinely sorry.

"... sorry you had to see that, sorry it was happening."

> The fault was mine.

They were talking over each other, though no one else would have been able to tell. It was so ridiculous that Watari had to laugh. "Can't we just agree that it was all a mistake? No one's at fault?"

> If you are satisfied, then I will certainly agree.

"Agreed, then. Though, for future reference, if you ever catch me doing something so stupid again, you can stop me. That's what partners are for."

> I have no wish to limit your social interactions.

"I think we both know Tsuzuki's--" Watari bit back his words, blinking at the unexpected turn back into dangerous territory. He wouldn't have expected that Tatsumi would be willing to discuss such matters, let alone encourage them. It couldn't be a good idea to talk about Tsuzuki. Watari did not want to explain how he knew about Tsuzuki and Tatsumi. That would be more embarrassing than getting caught. Watari could feel his headache returning as he tried to find another safe conversational tangent out of this mess. "We were both really drunk. It wasn't planned, you know."

> You do not need to excuse your behaviour, Watari-san. A vacation is an appropriate time for recreation.

Watari hit another tangle and swore under his breath when the pull went all the way to his scalp. He didn't feel well enough to multitask efficiently yet, but it was important to explain this to Tatsumi. Watari could only imagine the sort of man Tatsumi thought he was now.

"I don't just pick up because there's an opportunity, Tatsumi, especially-- I was drunk." The pain was mounting behind his eyes, making it hard to think. "I don't normally drink that much either-- I'd take you drinking and prove it if I... Oh, you have no idea how much my head hurts."

> My apologies.

Tatsumi's shadows shifted under his hair, brushing soft and cool over Watari's skin, and then fading...

"No, you're fine. You feel-- the shadows feel good. Cool is good right now, Tatsumi, trust me. Saves me going back inside for more pain-killers."

The shadows arrested their movement, then slowly spread up Watari's neck and then across his scalp.

> Please do not hesitate to advise me if this pains you in any way.

The shadows began to shift minutely across Watari's skin, applying light pressure in small, circular motions. Watari shut his eyes to savour the sensation and felt the chill, but not the pressure, flow from his hair down the arms of his sunglasses to shade his vision. When the pain receded sufficiently, Watari counted the pressure-spots: ten. He speculated they were Tatsumi's fingertips.

\---

Hisoka had lain on his futon until eight o'clock. Granted it was vacation, but over sleeping would have made his head hurt. He'd showered and taken breakfast with their hosts and Konoe-Kachou. Apparently, everyone else was sleeping in. Hisoka had tried to read in his room, but quickly gave up. Perhaps Ulysses was a classic but he thought he'd try finding it in a Japanese translation when he returned to Meifu.

Now, Hisoka paced in the hotel corridor, trying to appear nonchalant while not quite glaring at his partner's closed door. It would be lunch time soon, but he didn't want to have to go in and get his idiot partner.

Hisoka did not want to touch the door again. He could control his empathy better than he used to be able to, but strong emotions still broke through his control, sometimes. Tsuzuki was always harder to block out.

Last night, Tsuzuki and Watari... well, Hisoka knows at least what they intended to do when they staggered back to Tsuzuki's room. The impression was more drunk fog than detail, but it was enough to have made him blush when he touched the door.

He would be happy for his partner for finally squeezing some gesture of affection from the scientist, only Hisoka isn't sure that that is what really happened. It's not that Watari didn't _feel_ right-- who knew what Watari was feeling when Watari's ghost of a partner always _felt_ stronger to Hisoka than Watari did.

Watari wasn't acting right! Hisoka didn't know much about the niceties of romantic arrangements but he thought Watari shouldn't have just left while Tsuzuki was still asleep.

Hisoka knew Tsuzuki was still asleep because he'd braved the door to peek inside Tsuzuki's room after Watari left. The room smelt very wrong, and Hisoka didn't exactly want to be standing over Tsuzuki when he woke up.

At 1:29pm, Tsuzuki stuck his head cautiously outside his door. He was, thankfully, dressed, though how hard was it to get into a yukata, anyway? Tsuzuki's hair wasn't brushed, but he was wearing his watch.

Once Tsuzuki stopped rubbing his eyes, he saw Hisoka. He looked surprised, but that was washed quickly over by something else. Tsuzuki reached his arms above his head and-- stretched. (Unlike Hisoka, Tsuzuki apparently did not feel the need to wear a T-shirt under his yukata. Idiot.)

The way Tsuzuki felt-- it was too diffuse in context to make Hisoka blush, but it made him want to find somewhere quiet and sit with Tsuzuki's head in his lap. It was wrong, surely, to be examining how good Tsuzuki felt when it was someone else had made him this happy, but it was hard to let go of the feeling. Hisoka felt like a thief, so he scowled.

"Ohayo, Hisoka!" Tsuzuki scratched his head. It made his bed hair look worse. "Have you seen Watari?"

Hisoka wanted to say 'no', but that would have been a lie. "Yes. He was-- talking to himself."

Hisoka refused to start an argument with Tsuzuki over whether Watari had a partner, not on a morning like this.

"Hmm. I guess something happened at work. 'Tari always works too hard."

Just as Hisoka was debating internally whether to shield off some of Tsuzuki's emotions, they faded of their own accord. Tsuzuki was stared down the corridor to Watari's room.

"Do you know what time it is?" Hisoka said, loudly. "You're making us late for lunch."

Hisoka probably shouldn't have shouted, in case Tsuzuki had a hangover, but it meant Tsuzuki finally looked *at*him even if it also meant he ducked his head.

"Gomen, Hisoka!" Tsuzuki said, meekly. Mock-meekly, because his tone changed as quickly as his head whipped past Hisoka to face the dining rooms. "Wah! Come on, Hisoka! We have to hurry! There might be no food left soon!"

Tsuzuki started off down the corridor at a bolt. Hisoka only ran because he was following him.

Watari was such a jerk.

\---

"Oh! Yeah, there, Tatsumi! Right-- uh-- hn... yeah, there!"

He knew the basic theory behind massage, but he'd never had the opportunity to place that knowledge into practice. He assumed he was performing adequately as Watari's feedback was both loud and profuse, and to a relatively louder degree than his only example for comparison. (Admittedly, that was his partner's behaviour the night before, but his guilt was lessened by the knowledge that providing comfort to Watari-san in this fashion was the only compensation he was being allowed to offer.)

"Lower! And -- nn -- closer to my spine... there. Right there."

Tatsumi was also grateful for the volume of Watari's feedback because he could not use shadow to feel for the tension as accurately as he might have wished. Though he had begun with the intention to soothe his partner's aching head, Tatsumi had found that the tension travelled down the body. Not only Watari's head, but his neck, his shoulders and his back had been discomforting him, as Tatsumi had discovered moving through them in turn.

"Good morning, Watari-san-- and Tatsumi-san, I believe. We've been looking for you for a while."

Chief Konoe stood a few paces back from Watari. Behind him, Tsuzuki, Kurosaki, Torii and Fukiya all watched Watari with something very like horrified interest.

Watari shook his hair over his back and stood. In the reduced shadow, Tatsumi retreated into his partner's hair. "Lovely day, isn't it!"

> Please give Chief Konoe my regards.

"Tatsumi says 'Hi'!"

> Please consider protocol, Watari-san.

"Tatsumi says 'Good morning, Sir!'" Watari emended, but his good humour was evident in the tone of his voice.

Konoe nodded, then motioned behind him. Behind their colleagues stood several animals dressed in Western period costume. The animals also looked somewhat nervous.

> They are servitors of the Snow Queen.  
Tatsumi supplied for Watari's information.

> Who?  
Watari sent back along the same wireless connection; the film of shadow inside his PDA meant that Tatsumi could read as well as type.

"We have been approached with a request," Konoe began. "And a promise of a reward."

> You're in if there's a reward, aren't you?

> I am not technically on vacation, Watari-san. Of course I am at Konoe-Kachou's disposal.

> I can't believe I missed talking to you. ^_~

"We're in-- Sir," Watari said, skipping easily from electronic to audible speech. "As soon as Tatsumi knows how much of a reward."


End file.
